Bob Wiseman Online

Gazoo

I teach some people via Skype. Closest I’ve yet come to Astral Travel. Feels like I’m the Great Gazoo from the Flintstones materializing into their world for an hour, sitting on their shoulder. We spend time pointing and repointing the cameras at our faces or the pianos or the guitars and it works, it’s modern, it’s like anyone else I teach, or not.

I don’t actually believe in Astral Travel though my younger self tried very hard. Maybe in a way some people do “leave” when playing music or at least isn’t it amazing when in the midst of it, that part of the experience, is observing your own body utilizing muscle memory? Like the actual seat of consciousness is not being tapped to engage the physical aspect of playing the way it would have been originally. Like when a certain musical feat is first approached the brain struggles the same way as learning a new language but by the time you speak it, the brain isn’t thinking about how to conjugate, it’s fluid.

But that’s not the whole thing at least not for the improvising that attracts me. It’s about surfing with both experiences simultaneously. To stay with the language example it would be like being able to speak fluently but also immediately use new words you never heard before. That’s the biggest pay off because the words you already know don’t require the same effort and you might even embarrass yourself jumping into the unknown, or not.